As quickly as the word was introduced into American medical circles, "psychosomatic" was given much lip service by many physicians and psychologists. Psychosomatic as applied to factors in a given case, as a branch of medicine or as a special type of research, is horribly misused and all too frequently misunderstood. This monograph on bronchial asthma may stand as a documentary definition of what is meant by psychosomatic, for it is a living model of investigation in that field.

The Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis is exceptionally fortunate in its capacity for psychosomatic research. It commands a large clinical material on which the many cooperating analysts work, it enjoys adequate medical consultations and its directors have the vision with which to sift from the large quantities of superficial data presented at innumerable seminars by collaborators (twelve for this study) the specific psychologic factors in etiology. Yet organic factors are not overlooked